Beverage companies are enthusiastic about promoting their products and do so in many ways. One popular promotion technique is to have a stack of product arranged on an end cap of a store aisle with a promotional poster or other display nearby to catch the customer's eye. Some displays are independently supported, while some actually rest on the product. Independently supported displays can be difficult to arrange since the product can interfere with the support structure. Displays which rest on the product can fall down when bumped by customers or when the product which supports it is removed.
Another way beverage companies promote their products is to have a smaller display near the normal location of the product. Here the difficulty is visibility of the display. If the display is too small, it may not be noticed by customers. If it is too large, the display can frustrate customers by impeding access to or visibility of the very product it promotes.
Most types of promotional displays must be set up by employees of the beverage companies or the stores which sell the products, which can cause problems. Set up of displays introduces extra expense of time, energy, and money and can result in non-uniformity of displays from store to store.
The products beverage companies promote are packaged in a variety of ways. Stackable packs of bottles, especially in six- and eight-packs, are a popular type of packaging. Different types of holders are used to hold the together, some made from paper, some made from plastic, and many doubling as carriers for the pack. Most paper holders act like a box around the beverage bottles and have finger holes which allow packs to be carried more easily. Most plastic holders are sheets of plastic with holes which hold the necks of beverage bottles and have holes which can be used to carry the packs. The HI-CONE type of bottle holder is plastic, has rings which hold the bottles around their mid-sections, and has a handle on one edge to facilitate carrying of bottle packs. Other multi-pack bottle carriers formed of plastic in similar designs are also available.
In many instances, beverage companies use bottles, made from plastic or glass, which have recesses in their bottom ends. The recesses can receive top ends of like bottles, which enhance the stackability of the beverage bottle packs and facilitate their shipment, storage, and display. The bottles, whether made from plastic or glass, have necks which create gaps between the bottles. The bottles are often transparent; and, due to bottle-filling techniques, there is almost always empty space above the level of the beverage held in the bottles.
I have realized that beverage bottle packs which use plastic multi-pack configurations such as the HI-CONE holder present a new opportunity for promotional display. These holders are placed around the mid-section of the bottles, unlike other types of holders. As a result of its placement, these holders do not obstruct the gaps between the necks of the bottles they hold, allowing the interior of the packs to be seen. This is true of stacks of beverage bottle packs as well as individual packs. Even more space is visible when transparent bottles are used, whether they are clear, green, brown, or some other color; but transparency is not required.